1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inkjet recording apparatus and a control method for the inkjet recording apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
When ink is ejected from an ejection opening of a recording head of an inkjet recording apparatus, ink mist that is not landed on a recording medium is generated. The ink mist is deposited on an ejection opening surface of the recording head or the like and may prevent the ink ejected from the ejection opening from landing at a normal position. The ink mist deposited on the ejection opening surface is normally removed by a wiper blade.
In recent years, a technology for solidifying the ink on the recording medium by using ultraviolet rays, micro waves, heat, or the like has been developed to perform recording on the recording medium that does not have an ink receptor layer. In the above-described configuration, thermal fixing ink or the like which is easily be solidified on the recording medium by the heat or the like is used. According to such configuration too, the ink mist deposited on the ejection opening surface is firmly solidified on the ejection opening surface and may prevent the ink from the ejection opening from landing at a normal position. Since the ink mist according to the above-described inkjet recording technology is firmly solidified, it is difficult to remove the ink mist by a normal wiper blade in some cases.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,692,100 discloses a recording apparatus in which a sheet-like member is supplied to a position facing the ejection opening surface, and this sheet-like member is abutted against the ejection opening surface to perform wiping, so that the ejection opening surface is cleaned. U.S. Pat. No. 6,692,100 also discloses that the sheet-like member that has once been used for the wiping is reeled by a reeling roller, so that an unused part of the sheet-like member is supplied to the position facing the ejection opening surface.
Incidentally, since the sheet-like member is reeled for every wiping operation in the recording apparatus according to U.S. Pat. No. 6,692,100, even a site of sheet-like member where the contamination is moderate and the ejection opening surface can be cleaned again may be reeled in some cases. To elaborate, the sheet-like member is not reeled at an appropriate timing in accordance with a degree of contamination of the sheet-like member in the recording apparatus according to U.S. Pat. No. 6,692,100, and much of the sheet-like member may be consumed beyond necessity.
On the other hand, it is also conceivable to perform the reeling operation for every certain number of the wiping operations, but in such case, much of the contamination caused by the wiping operation is accumulated at a predetermined site of the sheet-like member. For this reason, even when the wiping operation is performed at this predetermined site, the ink solidified on the ejection opening surface may not sufficiently be removed.